August and Everything After — Live at Town Hall

On the radio, The Counting Crows are mid-tempo pop/rockers with a lead singer whose unique voice is a perfect fit for the MOR music they play. In concert, as this excellent Blu-ray concert video shows, it’s a different story thanks to the passionate, almost shamanistic singing of Adam Duritz. He doesn’t just put a song across; he uses his voice, his body and his palpable personality to make each song seem like a novel set to music. The band feeds off Duritz’s energy, delivering blistering versions of the songs you’ve been singing along with on the radio, making them feel fierce and fresh. If you aren’t a fan already, this Bl-ray will go a long way to changing your opinion.

Carmel

In the beginning of his latest film, writer/director Amos Gitai tells audiences that what they are about to see is not a traditional movie, that it’s more like a poem. If he’d taken the analogy a step or two further and provided some footnotes for the average viewer to unlock the mystery of movie, it might have worked better. Gitai mixes fiction and documentary, home movies and surrealistic imagery to trace his family history from the present day back to the Jewish- Roman wars that began in 66 A.D. The journey is fascinating, to a degree, and some of the imagery he puts on the screen seers itself into your mind. The story he is trying to tell, though, or better yet, the point he is trying to make with the film, needs further clarification. Or at least a few more viewings.

Doc Marten: The Movies

If all you know of the Doc Martin stories comes from watching the series, then this pair of TV movies that started it all may come as a bit of a surprise. The man that fans love to hate, the curmudgeonly village doctor played by Martin Clunes, is not nearly as acerbic in these feature-length films as he is in the regular series. But that’s OK. He’s certainly not perfect, or played that way by Clunes, and the stories are strong enough to cover up any gaps you may feel. Thankfully, there are still flare-ups of the man he will become, especially where dogs are concerned.

Prime Suspect Series 2

It may be the second installment in the Prime Suspect series, but if fans of the first TV film were expecting to see DCI Jane Tennison’s life picked up right where it left off at the end of the first movie, they will be shocked at the lady they see as Series 2 begins. And shocked in a good way thanks to the excellent script, crisp direction and, of course, the awesome acting from Helen Mirren as the aggressively ambitious detective. While solving the case in the first series has gained DCI Tennison some credibility in the force, the challenges of her second case, a racially charged investigation of a brutal murder in the African Caribbean community, could bring her fragile house tumbling down about her ears.

Fringe: Season 3

Most television series only resort to the ‘alternate universe’ plot-line when they’ve painted themselves into a story corner — usually a really bad story corner — and can see no way of getting out of it other than inventing a alternate universe where the bad things never happened in the first place. The makers of this excellent TV series prove that the alternate universe can be used to add layers to stories that are important, effective and extremely entertaining. The season alternates between ‘our universe’ and the ‘parallel universe’ each week, with just enough threads left hanging between the two to give fans something to twist over week after week. The acting remains excellent, with Anna Torv really coming into her own (x2) as Olivia. The final episode, Entrada, where both universes collide, is some of the best TV you will ever see.

Scarface

It’s become such an iconic, culturally influential bit of cinema that it’s almost shocking to go back and watch this 1983 Brian De Palma and see just how outrageously over-the-top the movie was and still is. The performance by Al Pacino as the coke dealer Tony Montana is absolutely fascinating — nobody has chewed the scenery with such relish since. The accent he uses to play the part of a Cuban criminal thrown out of his home country as part of Castro’s cultural cleansing program is, in a word, awful. But it’s also fascinating as hell to watch him deliver his lines so passionately (or is that shamelessly?). The supporting cast, including a rail-thin Michelle Pfeiffer as Montana’s drug addict wife, fights like a pack of angry dogs to draw the audience’s attention away from Al, but it’s a hopeless act. This is Pacino and De Palma at their most operatic, so nobody else stands a chance. The extras on the Blu-ray give viewers a lot to look at, including a fascinating exploration of the film’s cultural influence.

Henry's Crime

While in prison for a bank robbery he didn’t realize he was committing,  Henry Torne (Keanu Reeves), comes to the realization that as long as he’s already doing the time, he might as well do the crime. So when he’s released from jail he puts together a plan to rob the same bank. The plot to Henry’s Crime is a bit too over-complicated for its own good, but the outstanding performances of the cast make it work. Reeves, whose monosyllabic style of acting doesn’t always fit the roles he’s playing, does a nice job bringing the uncomplicated Henry to life. James Caan also does a fine job playing Max, a confidence man who, after being Henry’s cellmate for three years, decides to join in on the caper. Good as the guys are in the movie, Henry’s Crime works as well as it does for one reason: Vera Farmiga as Julie, a local television personality who dreams of leaving Buffalo behind to become a real actress in Hollywood. It’s not a showy role. Julie isn’t dying of a rare disease or escaping from an abusive relationship. She’s just a regular woman working hard at making her dreams come true, and Farmiga knocks it out of the park.